Positioning of volunteer interpreters in the field of public service interpreting in Spanish hospitals: A Bourdieusian perspective

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Abstract

This thesis sets out to investigate the field of public service interpreting in southern Spain, with a particular emphasis on the position of volunteer interpreters working at two different healthcare institutions. It looks at the power relationships that develop between agents that hold different degrees of control and autonomy, especially in a context where individuals hold different forms and volume of capital in each encounter. Drawing on Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice, the study offers an in-depth examination of a group of volunteer interpreters as legitimate agents of the wider field of public service interpreting and the sub-field of healthcare interpreting, while looking at their impact on the structures and ethics of the larger field. This is the first project to employ Bourdieu’s theory in a sustained case study of a healthcare context where volunteer interpreters operate as legitimised institutional agents. One of the peculiarities of the two settings under examination is that volunteer interpreters seem to have acquired a high degree of institutionalisation, which provides them with a large volume of symbolic capital and allows them to take part in the field as legitimate members of the healthcare team, often occupying similar positions to those adopted by doctors at the top end of the field hierarchy. The study adopts an ethnographic approach based on a triangulation of data: participant observation of volunteer interpreters, audio-recorded interpreter-mediated interaction and focus-group interviews with volunteer interpreters. The primary data that informs the thesis consists of four focus groups carried out with volunteer interpreters in two different Spanish hospitals. The additional use of participant observations and audio-recordings make it possible to examine not only interpreters’ perceptions but also actual behaviour in authentic encounters, and to compare interpreters’ perception of their positioning with the actual positions they often occupy in the field.

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Appendix I: Photographic data1. Daily Report Book2. Interpreters’ Archives3. Interpreters’ Award4. Interpreters’ ID5. Interpreters’ office6. Interpreters’ shift sheet7. Patients’ library8. Patients’ lists9. Petrol claiming formAppendix II: Ethical Clearance documents1. Aprobación Comité Etico2. Consent form in Spanish3. Consent form in English4. Participant information sheet for focus groups in Spanish5. Participant information sheet for focus groups in English6. Participant information sheet for IMI in Spanish7. Participant information sheet for IMI in English8. Research Ethics Declaration9. Research Ethics statement for first stage10. Research Ethics statement for final stageAppendix III: Focus Group Guide1. Concept tree2. Focus group guideAppendix IV: Documentary data1. Feeling ill? Get to Spain quick2. Interpreters’ Handbook3. Mediadores en la Babel hospitalaria4. ¿Que le duele qué? Comunicar para curar5. Sol y prótesis de caderaAppendix V: Transcriptions1. Transcription Conventions2. DRV 13. DRV 24. FG 15. FG 26. FG 37. FG 48. IMI 19. IMI 210. IMI 3

Keyword(s)

alignment; attitudinal autonomy; doxa; healthcare interpreting; institutionalisation; volunteer interpreters

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